What is the oldest tree in Iwata?
Iwata's only mapped tree is Yuya no Naga Fuji, the Long Wisteria of Yuya, at Gyokoji Temple, judged to be roughly 800 to 850 years old and a National Natural Monument since 1932.
The vine grows on the grounds of Gyokoji Temple in Ikeda, reached by bus or taxi from JR Iwata or Fukude station, since no rail line reaches the temple directly. Free to visit; the city runs an annual wisteria festival with night illumination and temporary parking during the mid-to-late April bloom. Its kanji name is usually read Kumano, but is read locally as Yuya, after Yuya Gozen, a court lady from the Noh play named for her, who local legend says planted the vine herself before leaving for Kyoto in the late Heian period. Its trellis has grown from roughly 400 square metres in 1907 to about 1,600 today, and its flower clusters typically reach over a metre long, with a recorded maximum of 1.5 metres. Five younger wisterias on the same temple grounds carry their own separate designation, each roughly 250 years old, but this is the vine the temple, the town and the festival are named for.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.